Thursday, January 10, 2013

Happy New Years from Sweden!

Long winding and cold road, this day we got stood up on 3 appointments and a bus drove right by us without picking us up and we were way out in the country.

The ReseCentrum in Skovde or the center of their bus system.

My time in Sweden has definitely lived up to the pending excitement while I was waiting to come. It has been very exciting and very cold at the same time. New Years we were out until twelve which was very weird. I haven't been awake past 10.45 for the last 4 months. Being out and about after 12 am was very weird. We spent it at a members house and they fed us such good food. I am really starting to love the food here in Sweden. Speaking of which I had Pizza kebab which I came to learn is pretty much what it sounds like, it is pizza with kebab strips all over it with sauces and fries all over the top. It is very good but its also a lot of food when I do eat it.

Pizza Kebab

The weather continues to be cold but it is nothing compared to what its supposed to be, Most of the snow has actually melted here in Skövde. Everyone I've talked to though guarantees me that winters not done yet. I can see a lot of grass and the sun has been coming up more often, If winter is over it will have been one of the shortest Swedish winters pretty much ever. I probably have around seven hours of light a day though so its not that bad like up in Norrland (Northern Sweden).

The most exciting news of the week is last Tuesday we committed someone to be Baptized on the 13th of January. His name is Ståle and he is golden, he is such a perfect example of someone waiting to accept the gospel. We taught him about Visdomsordet (The Word of Wisdom) and he talked about how he has seen the benefits of living like that and how inspired it must have been. We then asked him if he was ready to be a member and follow Christ's example through Baptism, he said yes and hopefully will be Baptized on the 13th.

Last week was a Zone Meeting. For Zone meeting I got to go down into Göteborg. Göteborg is so beautiful and amazing I want to go back in to see it again sometime. The one sad part is I forgot my camera that day so no pics from that. I loved Göteborg, hopefully I'll get to serve down in the city sometime but for now I am part of the Göteborg zone but our District is the district that is farthest away from the city so it was quite the commute for us. So Wednesday night Karlstad (the other elders from our district) came and spent the night with us so they were a bit closer to Göteborg so we could commute together. It was fun meeting them, Elder Sanders and Bressan. (Sanders from Utah and Bressan from Italy). Our Zone Leaders are Elders Hally and Ingall. They are sweet and know how to get all of us pumped about the second Harvest. My zone is amazing, we are all going to do so well together. We had the meeting at the YSA center. They have 4 YSA centers in Sweden. Its basically, a place the church rents out and fills with stuff to do like musical instruments, pool, ping pong, computers, board games, puzzles, food, and a big living room. They then allow the YSA to come and hang out there and spend time together doing awesome stuff. It also really helps the missionaries in the area find people to teach.

The Goteborg Zone

We stayed the night with the Zone Leaders so I could go early that next morning and get some of my Migration work done. I went on Splits with Elder Hally. It was way cool being with him. He is from Idaho Falls. We went to visit some non-members and on the way knocked the doors. We got quite a few people interested and so we got appointments with those people. One guy named Vincent allowed us to come right in and teach him, We came in and after teaching the Restoration I committed him to be Baptized! He said yes! Although later he went backwards as we tried to set him with a date. Still, we just walked right in and got someone to agree to reading the book of Mormon, Praying about Joseph Smith and being Baptized. Its incredible how much the Spirit can guide you in the work. The spirit gave to us so strongly what we needed to say and both of us could tell he was feeling the spirit so strongly. He was even talking about how good it felt. I wish he was in my area and I could keep teaching him. But Elder Hart is awesome and will help Vincent so much.

Although I could go on forever about Sweden and how amazing the Lord is that is all for this week.

Love,

Elder Geddes and I both slipped on the ice. Mom thinks it's staged! Notice the sidewalk next to them.